I used to find talking about tools tedious. Tools were only something i used at work, work was a means to get money to buy beer, travel and buy records. I'm getting old and now with an apprenticeship i'm actually taking seriously this time, investing in tools is kind of a thing. I used to sell off whatever valuable tools i had before i left for a trip, swearing I was over trade related shit. Thinking only about the destination and not worrying about coming home at some point to fuck all. I was so desperate to get out of CHCH after my last attempt at an apprenticeship i flogged a bunch of snazzy milwaulkee shit to an old boss.

Anyway, tools, as all technology is developing horendously fast, almost too fast, and often too far.....I just bought a new drill set today, $700 for a milwaulkee set, impact and hammer drill, 5.ah, these drills are sweet, but have some inbuilt bollix where you blue tooth to your computer and specify various settings. Why the fuck would anyone want or need to do this, Its just another thing to go wrong. It's actually completely bizarre. Just as retarted as this blue tooth Watch the phone company gave me that reads your heart rate and tracks your steps and answers texts through speech. Who the fuck needs this shit. I told them i didnt want it, they said it was free, I couldnt even sell it cos theyre only weorth 30 or 40 bucks online

Anyway the drills are cool, just have an inbuilt feature I find to be fairly over the top. I still stand by the purchase tho, milwaulkee has the most interchangable battery tools. Makita is a close second but their battery life is questionable. Bosch is too far behind, dewalts a joke and Hitachi is somewhere back in the late 90's.

I know nothing about drills, but could bore you for hours about pruning saws. Especially the Japanese ones- Gomtaro- which have a scabbard like a samurai sword and who would never ruin the tool's elegance with bluetooth.

Fuckin' LOVE em. When I worked in the auto industry mine and many other's favourite time of the week was definitely when the tool truck came on Fridays. It sold Schroder, Snap On, Matador and a few other quality imported brands. Omfg eh there's just no substitute for good tools. When my old man retired this year I bought him a tool chest, 7-drawer trolley on wheels, etc. Just the black one Repco sell for around $1k all up. It's what I'd want if I was retiring. Fuck yeah tools.

I haven't got shit all tools but I work with a bunch of tradies and fitters with some seriously nice kit. A couple have those spanners with the ratcheting bit on one end and a regular spanner on the other. Fuck it gives me tool envy.But being a mostly software engineer I only need tools to fit sensors and that's rare enough as it is so no fancy tools for me.EDIT:TURNS OUT THEYRE NOT ACTUALLY TOO EXPENSIVE. GUESS WHO'S GETTING SOME GEAR SPANNERS?https://www.kincrome.com.au/gear-spanner-set-7pc-af

General Mutante wrote:Turning the other cheek is for christians and other assorted boring cunts. Bring on the hate. SACRIFICE THE GOLDEN CHILD!

I bought a drill recently. I don't know what sort of drill it is but I bought a whole box of drill heads from really big ones down to really tiny ones you could drill a hole with that you could barely stuff a solitary pube down. I'm using any excuse I can find to drill holes in things. Recently I drilled a pattern of really small holes in a bottle top so the vessel could be used as a squeezey bottle to strain out infused liquids without getting the solid contents into things. If any other readers have further ideas for drilling holes I would like to hear them. Currently I'm toying with the idea of self-trepanation.

Little Miss Twoshoes wrote:Violent period sex is a pretty good indicator that you're into someone, I think

Rizzo wrote:I haven't got shit all tools but I work with a bunch of tradies and fitters with some seriously nice kit. A couple have those spanners with the ratcheting bit on one end and a regular spanner on the other. Fuck it gives me tool envy.But being a mostly software engineer I only need tools to fit sensors and that's rare enough as it is so no fancy tools for me.EDIT:TURNS OUT THEYRE NOT ACTUALLY TOO EXPENSIVE. GUESS WHO'S GETTING SOME GEAR SPANNERS?https://www.kincrome.com.au/gear-spanner-set-7pc-af

But their ones will be snap on or similar I'm guessing.Think I've seen a version of these at supercheap auto

I've definitely gone wild with tool buying in my old age. Reckon I'd have a split between half decent gear, half throw away shit you buy once to do one job. Though a fair amount of the shitty Trojan stuff from Bunnings has served me well, especially the open ended /ring spanner set. The drawers case is looking pretty well equipped these days.

My initial Makita sets batteries finally shat themselves recently so I picked up some Dewalt 10v stuff super cheap on clearance and it's been surprisingly handy for what I use it for. Nice and light. I usually like the 18v torque, but it's kinda overkill unless you're fixing things permanently. It's depressing as fuck how the batteries are so expensive you're better off just replacing your entire kit. I've considered picking up some Milwaukee brushless drills, but I don't think there's really a huge difference in quality across the major brands, to the point I'm pretty sure most of them come out of one or two factories. Should probably save my cash and just get Festool gear.

Rizzo wrote:I haven't got shit all tools but I work with a bunch of tradies and fitters with some seriously nice kit. A couple have those spanners with the ratcheting bit on one end and a regular spanner on the other. Fuck it gives me tool envy.But being a mostly software engineer I only need tools to fit sensors and that's rare enough as it is so no fancy tools for me.EDIT:TURNS OUT THEYRE NOT ACTUALLY TOO EXPENSIVE. GUESS WHO'S GETTING SOME GEAR SPANNERS?https://www.kincrome.com.au/gear-spanner-set-7pc-af

Yiiihhh ratchet spanners are the best investment ever. Everyone should have a set.

General Mutante wrote:I bought a drill recently. I don't know what sort of drill it is but I bought a whole box of drill heads from really big ones down to really tiny ones you could drill a hole with that you could barely stuff a solitary pube down. I'm using any excuse I can find to drill holes in things. Recently I drilled a pattern of really small holes in a bottle top so the vessel could be used as a squeezey bottle to strain out infused liquids without getting the solid contents into things. If any other readers have further ideas for drilling holes I would like to hear them. Currently I'm toying with the idea of self-trepanation.

There's more to life than thrashSo let's get really smashedand do the heavy head dance

I've been slowly building up my tool collection over the last few years. I love being able to fix/make shit and learn new skills at the same time. Makes me appreciate even more some of the amazing craftsmanship out there.

There's more to life than thrashSo let's get really smashedand do the heavy head dance

i showed it to a blacksmith(Anton) who grudgingly admitted it was pretty good, haha, hes always telling me not to make a knife by anything other than the most traditional/grueling method, and seems uninterested in whether it looks rad or chode.

yeh thats sexy, im ok with having rugged looking, serviceable knives for bushwork, to that end i would like something similar to the above, but i would rather it was tougher/unsnappable than sharper, i can carry a smaller knife for the sharp edge, and i doesnt need to be pretty.

but i would love some kitchen knives that look as amazing as that above, and hold a great edge too, they will never be asked to split wood or be used as a lever, so they can have fucking greenstone handles and woost blades if i want them to

been looking at stock removal, cos i have all the tools for that, but its hard to find any actual quality damascus that doesnt cost the earth, like, it would be cheaper to just buy a finished knife, and thats half defeating the purpose, its a quandry alright.

hiv-positive wrote:My initial Makita sets batteries finally shat themselves recently so I picked up some Dewalt 10v stuff super cheap on clearance and it's been surprisingly handy for what I use it for. Nice and light. I usually like the 18v torque, but it's kinda overkill unless you're fixing things permanently. It's depressing as fuck how the batteries are so expensive you're better off just replacing your entire kit. I've considered picking up some Milwaukee brushless drills, but I don't think there's really a huge difference in quality across the major brands, to the point I'm pretty sure most of them come out of one or two factories. Should probably save my cash and just get Festool gear.

The smaller volt drills are pretty handy at times. I have some tiny Aeg 12v drills that i used for when i was doing exhibition work and shop fitouts. Theyre light as shit and you can get in small spaces. Great for cabinet makers and the like. I dont use em much which is probably why they still go.

Festool is so fuckin pricy and i cant justify splashing out that much. Especially when Milwaulkee and other slightly cheapet brands have such effective warranteesl. Only ousted by Hiltis life time guarantee. )But the festool skill saws with the aluminum guide tracks are fucking incredible.. Its literally a hand held table rip saw but allows you more manuevering. But still, cant justify spending that much now that I only work on residential renovations. But building bizarely shaped floors on film work they were a life saver. But yeah small low volt drills are handy as shit about the home. The 12v impact driver i have does come out at work sometimes. Generally followed by hilarious jokes about me, A. Having a small dick, or B. Being an electrician. Classic jokes those, classic. And only one is mildly truthful!

I don't even know what brand my drill is, my partner had it already when I moved in with her. I've managed to get by with it the last couple of years but I really really like a nice drill set.

I bought a Ryobi drill press earlier this year from Super Cheap Auto for not much. Haven't used it enough yet to really justify it and the spindle keeps falling odd so I think it might have been machined badly. Get what you pay for I guess.

There's more to life than thrashSo let's get really smashedand do the heavy head dance

Actually speaking of shit tools my soldering iron is fucked. The tip doesn't heat properly which makes for extremely bodgy jobs with my already shaky hands. Totally fried an IC because one of the joints on the leg of it wasn't exactly fused to the other one but probably within conductive distance of it. I used a heat sink and everything. It resulted in an Atari Punk Console/two step tone generator that outputted only static at various volumes. The breadboard version worked fine. At least the output jack and the on light were sweet.

Fuck that soldering iron. $19.95 and it came with a spare tip that is useless as fuck because you can't unscrew the original one. You'd have to unscrew it, remove the cowling and strip it down to the wires and putting the new tip in would require, guess what, soldering.

So no soldering delicate things for me until I get a decent soldering station and/or an Igor style assistant to do it for me while I shout at him.

Little Miss Twoshoes wrote:Violent period sex is a pretty good indicator that you're into someone, I think

Rizzo wrote:We've got one of these Hakko soldering stations at work and it's the best shit - http://au.element14.com/hakko/fx-888d/s ... dp/2280753A bit expensive but I've repeatedly soldered tiny tiny 1mm or less wires without drama. I've used it for surface mount parts even.

Yeah that's the shit. Looks small enough to do detailed stuff like ICs easily. They say a bad worker always blames his tools but shit tools can really fuck things up. A proper soldering station is out of my budget at the moment because my other half is off work with a fucked leg and the budget pretty much only extends to groceries, booze and narcotics. I will however fap to this until I can afford it.

Little Miss Twoshoes wrote:Violent period sex is a pretty good indicator that you're into someone, I think

Transistors can get fucked too. I'm self taught on most things and was trying to understand how ICs work by trying to build a logic gate on a bread board with them and got one of the three legged fuckers plugged in wrong. The LED failed to blink and I soon started smelling hot plastic.

Little Miss Twoshoes wrote:Violent period sex is a pretty good indicator that you're into someone, I think

dave-brown wrote:But the festool skill saws with the aluminum guide tracks are fucking incredible.. Its literally a hand held table rip saw but allows you more manuevering. But still, cant justify spending that much now that I only work on residential renovations. But building bizarely shaped floors on film work they were a life saver.

fuck, i can see what you mean about price, dear god. it looks awesome, but holy fuck, is it made from an alloy of mithril and adamantium?

about 15 years ago, probably more, my dad had a makita cordless skillsaw, it chewed its battery fast, but it was a bit smaller than the average skilly, and light, maneuverablehe's got it still actually, and i always toy with the idea of replacing its battery, it was just so easy to use, especially crawling around in a roof cavity.